Heretofore, the primary commercially available extractant employed to separate trivalent actinides from trivalent lanthanides has been bis-2,4,4-trimethylpentyl dithiophosphinic acid, having the trade name CYANEX®-301 (Cytec Technology Corp., Wilmington, Del.). This conventional extractant is an effective agent for the separation of trivalent actinides (Am(III), Cm(III), etc.) from lanthanides in an acidic medium.
While this extraction agent has worked with some degree of success, there are shortcomings with this compound that have detracted from its usefulness. Chief among these shortcomings is that this compound requires the use of mildly acidic processing conditions. In practice, the use of this compound requires complex adjustments to the aqueous process-feed that complicates the operation of this very complex extraction process, and tends to increase the amount of secondary waste material. In addition to the foregoing, it has long been known that CYANEX®-301 is easily decomposed in acidic solutions, further limiting its usefulness in production scale processes.
An extraction agent and method of extraction for actinides from lanthanides that avoids the shortcomings in the prior art compounds and methodology used heretofore is the subject matter of the present application. The method of extraction can additionally be utilized to separate actinides from one another.